2015 Watch: economic, financial, war, money, gold turmoil

[sabertooth]

Hmm, I wonder,  did you get that concept from Poul Anderson's Flandry series of SF books?

http://poulandersonappreciation.blogspot.com/2012/04/long-night.html
They are a wonderful read, if a bit of a ripoff of the roman empire's history.

The concept is much older and more universal, it is relevant to the age old drama of the human seeker told by of storytellers past present and future ... It was a reference to the long "dark night of the soul", in which the mystic seeker must go through in order to have a spiritual awaking and find union with " the Divine"... This concept can be applied to an individual life, or in this case the collective soul of year 2015 humanity, in which an entire era can be seen as the long dark night, after which the dawning of the sun will awaken the world.

[Alive]

I found the documentary Ring Of Power to be a very interesting explanation of what is behind all of this, it is very long, but well worth watching as it contains so much information from so many angles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CObE4Cnuw5k

For example why the Viking sail, the East India Company flag, and the US flag all contain red and white stripes.

[goodsamaritan]

Truth in Media: Origin of ISIS

http://youtu.be/o6kdi1UXxhY

I believe we have plenty of Americans in this forum.  Is it still safe for you to post a video like this and spread on your facebook accounts?

Published on Feb 25, 2015

http://benswann.com/contribute
In this episode of Truth in Media, Ben Swann explores the origin of ISIS that has already been long forgotten by American media. Swann takes on the central issue of whether or not ISIS was created by "inaction" by the United States government or by "direct" action.

This has to be the most easy to understand direct to the point explanation of ISIS in 12 minutes.

Can you Americans do something about this mess so we can have world peace?

[sabertooth]

“The war, therefore if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that the hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word "war," therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist. The peculiar pressure that is exerted on human beings between the Neolithic Age and the early twentieth century has disappeared and has been replaced by something quite different. The effect would be much the same if the three superstates, instead of fighting one another, should agree to live in perpetual peace, each inviolate within its own boundaries. For in that case each would still be a self-contained universe, freed forever from the sobering influence of external danger. A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war. This--although the vast majority of Party members understand it only in a shallower sense--is the inner meaning of the Party slogan: WAR IS PEACE.”  George Orwell

[sabertooth]

"The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact." George Orwell

[eveheart]

I believe we have plenty of Americans in this forum.  Is it still safe for you to post a video like this and spread on your facebook accounts? ... Can you Americans do something about this mess so we can have world peace?

You have an interesting way of turning phrases, GS.

From within, the US is a regular place with regular people. It is certainly pleasant enough that your fellow countrymen fill a generous immigration quota each year and bring their culture here for good-ol' American assimilation.

It is easily observable that much of our governing system is an oligarchy, which I think is a natural tendency in the governments of industrial nations. You can see that tendency clearly in the biographies of our early industrialists: Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Morgan, Gould, Rockefeller. etc. Control is part of the psychology of people with big dreams, so there was no escaping the formation of oligarchy.

Then, there is a question of how being an oligarchy affects US foreign policy. If you go back to the last century, you can see how the energy giants that formed the basis of our industrial development exploited energy resources in other countries by conspiring with a friendly (= well-compensated) government. It was a de facto colonization of those areas in the guise of international cooperation.

You can see the colony's side of that type of interaction in your own country's colonial history. You were Spain's colony, but after that, you had the same treatment from the US as you did formerly from Spain, but the word "colony" wasn't used. Resentment of that type of treatment leads to revolutions for independence followed by a power struggle for the control of the new government. The big picture is that the Arab nations are going through their post-(de facto) colonization period. They have to hate us because our oligarchists are the ugly Americans with an expressed tendency to put money ahead of people. From the money perspective, they are the good guys. From the human perspective, they are as bad as a human gangster can get.

There is a growing side of benevolence among oligarchists, which I why I used the word tendency, and not certainty. Carnegie was probably the first "big-name" industrialist to endorse philanthropy, but we see a burst of philanthropic activities among all wealthy Americans nowadays.

And the rest of "us" are just regular people who post a vast variety of weirdness on the internet with no fear of reprisal.

[goodsamaritan]

Thanks for the education Eve. 

I think some of the members of this forum are members of the powers that be.

We provide enough anonymity for the powers that be to join in.

And seeing that the powerful people are long lived and healthy, I can assume raw paleo diet in some form is one of their tools for health and sharp mindedness.

Hopefully you guys and gals with the powers can help make this world a more peaceful more wonderful place.

Or maybe Im just a dreamer, and today's state of the world affairs are already better?

Maybe because of the internet we are just able to inform ourselves of so much detailed news around the world... and ignorance pre internet was bliss?

[JeuneKoq]

Big Brother is watching you 

[eveheart]

Many countries, including the US, have worthy human-rights aims, but sometimes the Machiavellian side of human nature emerges in the execution of these goals. We (the US) express horror over events like the immolation of that Jordanian pilot, yet our government has its own hands stained with equally atrocious acts in the name of national security. Apparently, we are able to be very covert about it because atrocities are not being aimed at the man on the street - we definitely do not experience midnight disappearances of most US dissenters, because we do not have a totalitarian government. Therefore, we don't suspect that bad things are happening until someone spills the beans about hidden activities.

In addition, our central government has limited powers, so state and local governments are small enough to be ideologically compatible with their constituents, reducing our focus to local matters. We may listen to national concerns, but we think about local concerns. Also, our preference for "privacy" makes us blind to anything outside our front door; we are content as long as nobody rams down our door and loots our stuff.

I understand that your own country has had a recent history of woeful government practices during a regime that performed many social improvements with Machiavellian means. Political climates change with the seasons. Hopefully, we remember enough of the bad times to avoid repeating them.

I believe that dreamers can change the world around them, but you would need a massive concentration of dreamers to change the whole world... and even then, would all dreamers agree on the ends and the means? Nowadays, dreamers can communicate easily via the internet. Before the internet, communities weren't so global, so people had other ways to communicate easily. Long ago, American Revolutionaries communicated easily by hand-operated printing press, horse, and sailing ship (to get to France for military support), and from my perspective, they were successful in improving many things in their community.

[sabertooth]

The liberal spreading of the ideals of dreamers, through the printing press lit fires in the minds of men and inspired many to willfully disregard authoritarianism and construct the mindset of a liberated people. This power of newly emergent media forms to affect the collective mental Construct of the multitudes is immense, and can be welded for good or for ill. The power of the free press took away from the tyrant the monopoly on truth which had been used so effectively through the dark ages to maintain the hierarchical structures of feudalism.

Thomas Paine was read by everyone who was anyone who participated in the American revolution, and although most of the founders did not publicly acknowledge the impact of the Ideas written into " the age of reason" had upon them, it was apparent that their actions were influenced by and reflected many of the more radical sentiments of Paine... If not for the advent and utilization of the new media at the time, Thomas Paine may have just been written off as some crack pot, or executed as a traitor by the powers that be.

Eventually a new world became established, different in some ways, yet similar in others.... the print media that was once a fresh and wild frontier that beaconed to the call of the liberated patriot for" liberty and justice" for all, eventually  became incorporated into the power structure of a new establishment, determined to rebuild and maintain the hierarchical structures of the stratified society . Once again the lid was put back on the crack pots and revolutionaries who railed against the crown, the genie of unbridled Truth was shoved back into its bottle, the fires that once burned bright in the minds of men died out.

There are patterns that one can discern in the cycles of evolution, revolution and ecology that occur within all realms of thought, be it sociopolitical, astronomical or biological. What kind of world one wishes to construct using the patterns set out before us is for us to work out in our own time and in our own way.  The American dream was born out of the melting pot of the combine efforts of millions of dreamers and hard working folk. In this Ideal there is no exclusivity, everyone is free to participate in the collective dream.

Now in subjective reality this ideal may not hold true for many or even most people, but with out these Ideals we would have nothing to strive for, no moral compass by which to coordinate our efforts. Perhaps we collectively work with and against each other to cultivate strife as the mechanism by which to bring about the next stage in our evolution. "You don't depart for the stars under calm and orderly conditions, Its a fire in a mad house"

What we now possess with the power of instant communication is a freedom of press that is millions of times greater than  what the old time pamphlet spreading revolutionaries could ever have dreamed. With great power comes great responsibility, and with great wisdom one may find great suffering, so let us encourage each other in the facilitation of a responsible search for truth and meaning, in a brave new world that is often very lacking in either.

"Lead follow or get out of the Way" Thomas Paine

[goodsamaritan]

Breaking the NWO mold... dangerous move.

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/02/27/399490/Hungary-PM-rejects-immigration

Hungary Prime Minister rejects immigration, multiculturalism
Feb 27, 2015

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has condemned liberalism and multiculturalism and promised to battle rising immigration, saying it is turning his country into a "refugee camp."

"(A Hungarian) does not want to see throngs of people pouring into his country from other cultures who are incapable of adapting and are a threat to public safety, to his job and to his livelihood," The Associated Press quoted Orban as saying during his annual state of the nation speech in the capital  Budapest on Friday.

"The Hungarian man is, by nature, politically incorrect. That is, he has not lost his common sense," he added.

The European Union member state has seen an influx of migrants this year, many of whom are from Kosovo and trying to reach Germany and western countries.   

The prime minister also referred to a multicultural society as "a delusion" and went on to defend the Hungarian government’s efforts to dump "liberal social policies" which he claimed rejected Christian culture.

Orban’s last year declaration that he wished his nation to be an "illiberal" state sparked censure from Western countries.   

He also hailed the Hungarian government’s irregular economic policies, some of which have drawn criticism from investors because they levy higher tax rates for banks and non-domestic companies.

"Hungary has become an economic success story, which is slowly being recognized by Europe," he said, referring to the country's 2014 estimated growth rate of 3.5 percent.

SRK/AS/MHB

[TylerDurden]

Orban is a great guy. He was one of the few leaders within the EU to try to make friends with Putin rather than supporting the illegal undemocratic coup in the Ukraine. My relatives think he and Putin are all bad and blindly believe in whatever the press says. My own brother, who is  a powerful figure in finance, and therefore  really ought to know better, just recently blindly parrotted,  perhaps without realising, an anti-Putin propaganda piece in the papers which purported to claim how Putin's mind works. One would think that someone with control over investments would be a bit wiser and rely on high-level contacts with Putin's actual government before making any  statements, but it seems that most people who control our investments just haven't a clue and blindly throw money  to wherever their whims lie.

[eveheart]

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has condemned liberalism and multiculturalism and promised to battle rising immigration, saying it is turning his country into a "refugee camp."

"(A Hungarian) does not want to see throngs of people pouring into his country from other cultures who are incapable of adapting and are a threat to public safety, to his job and to his livelihood," The Associated Press quoted Orban as saying during his annual state of the nation speech in the capital  Budapest on Friday.

Of course, Hungary may do as it pleases, but from my assimilative perspective, people from other cultures are not incapable of adapting and are not a threat to public safety, etc. The "huddled masses" that come here in to California are lively, adventurous people, a little timid at first, and eager to return smiles.  Maybe my area of the US has the knack of promoting assimilation because we have had so much experience at it, so I'm not saying it's easy. But it certainly does not foretell doom.

[TylerDurden]

It all depends on what sort of  immigration, I suppose. If the immigration involves hordes of illiterate, unassimilable,  low-skilled workers who do not speak the local language and  who are being used as low-wage slaves, then obviously that is a big minus. Slaves hate being used like cattle, even if their circumstances are better than in their own country of origin, so inevitably will do the absolute minimum in work as regards standards and quality, thus producing shoddy products with low durability etc. In the UK, mass immigration has made many indigenous UKers unable to find work because companies would far rather hire a  foreign slave for a small fraction of the salary that a UKer would reasonably expect. In short, mass immigration drives down the average wage of the indigenous and discourages assimilation. Assimiliation can only really work if immigration happens in dribs and drabs as that allows time for  gradual assimiliation to occur. It also helps greatly, judging from  world history, if incoming immigrants not only adopt the local language but also the local  customs, culture and religion.

[eveheart]

If the immigration involves hordes of illiterate, unassimilable,  low-skilled workers who do not speak the local language and  who are being used as low-wage slaves, then obviously that is a big minus.

There is a great range of immigrant qualities, but I don't see their deficits as willful. It's just a matter of time before they assimilate - and sometimes the immigrant generation doesn't assimilate well, but their children do. What many immigrants lack in skills they more than make up for in determination.

In the US's immigrant history, there have been times when immigrants have had to fight for their rights, but everybody here has rights that they have to fight for from time to time, so that's just part of life. It's not the immigrant's crime that someone is enslaving them, so dealing with that crime is a separate issue.

It also helps if the immigrant's new community is slightly welcoming, although this should go without saying. Find out why a person immigrates and then imagine yourself in that person's shoes. My family's immigrant generation sought refuge at the tip of the bayonet. All the host country has to do is be half-nice and they will see their immigrants in a completely different light.

[TylerDurden]

Well, I can only go by my own family's experience. We have been immigrants for some generations. Either some of us completely integrated with the relevant country in any and all respects or, like my father, would simply travel abroad and stay just for a few years at a time in  different  foreign countries where he could not possibly be properly assimilated. Since he left regularly to go abroad and did not stay indefinitely, he was more easily welcomed by the indigenous community than would otherwise have been the case.

As for the US, I believe the term used to describe the current situation there, fuelled by mass immigration,  is "bladerunner scenario". Nice film,  but  it shows a dystopic Earth I would not want to live in. Though living in the space colonies not specifically featured in the film would not be an issue.

[goodsamaritan]

How massive is the immigration inflow the past 2 decades compared to those of other immigration experiences in prior generations?  Maybe the quantity is just so fantastically significantly different?

UK will be a majority islamic country in 2050?  How about France?
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3770/the_islamic_future_of_britain

Norway Just Deported 824 Muslims, Violent Crime Dropped By 30%
Norway recently made the controversial decision to deport a large amount of Muslims with ties to radical groups.

http://qpolitical.com/norway-just-deported-824-muslims-every-american-needs-to-see-what-happened-next/

Sweden: Rape Capital of the West

by Ingrid Carlqvist and Lars Hedegaard
February 14, 2015

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5195/sweden-rape

[TylerDurden]

Yes, the many negatives that immigrant communities bring such as increased crime-rates, no-go areas in inner cities  etc., are rarely, if ever, mentioned in the mass media. Thank god for the Internet!

The most amusing example was the case of the Marielitos from Cuba. Fidel Castro decided to empty his prisons and lunatic asylums in the early 1980s  and send them off to the US disguised as refugees so that they could "contribute to" and "enhance" the US in their very own way!  The US, moronically, welcomed them with open arms

One other point:- there is basically one overriding reason why people immigrate en masse, these days. Namely, that  their own people have already ruined their home country via corruption, incompetence or mismamanagement etc., or, secondly, because of constant wars. Now, given that Israel is the prime instigator behind several recent wars in the Middle-East, should it not be Israel which has to invite the rising tide of war-refugees there? As regards the first point, I think it is reasonable for so-called "economic migrants"(such an overly pleasant, politically-correct term to describe  something far worse) to be forced to stay in their own countries and actually solve their own problems rather than simply exporting those same unsolved problems to other countries via mass immigration.

[eveheart]

As for the US, I believe the term used to describe the current situation there, fuelled by mass immigration,  is "bladerunner scenario". Nice film,  but  it shows a dystopic Earth I would not want to live in.

A "bladerunner scenario" is not my current situation, that's for sure!

It makes me laugh and cry when I read about the US from an outsider's perspective. We have our problems, and we solve many of those problems and hope the solutions have some merit. I've lived in either rural or urban California for the past forty-five years and I feel like a normal person with a normal life. As a resident of a hub of global commerce, I live among "traders" (= immigrants) from many lands. As a citizen in a capitalistic society, I always face the temptation to be overly materialistic. As a woman protected by the Equal Rights legislation, I have pursued a life that fulfills my desires for myself and my family. I have never, not even once, dreamed of living elsewhere because of my dissatisfaction with American Inperfection.

I belong to the large socio-economic "middle" class of America. We complain a lot about every little imperfection, but we are not suffering. Above me, the socio-economic "upper middle" and "upper" classes also complain a lot about every little thing, and they do not suffer. Our impoverished "lower" class is suffering in material ways, but the remedy is elusive.

[TylerDurden]

Except that the middle-class in the US  is being crushed right now.

[eveheart]

Except that the middle-class in the US  is being crushed right now.

We are? The economic statistics of the middle class has its historical ups and downs, but we do tolerably well even at the lowest points. Crushed is too strong a word. Maybe a few hairs on our heads are being ruffled by the breeze.

I wish the middle class would shut up and look down to the poor, who have been crushed so long that it doesn't even make the news.

[TylerDurden]

Comparing the middle-class of  Western nations to the scum at the lowest level such as in Calcutta, Lagos etc. is not a good way to show how well the middle-class is doing! In fact the middle-class is doing worse and worse and current mass immigration is increasing this problem in a number of ways.

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/19/reaganomics_killed_americas_middle_class_partner/

http://www.today.com/id/3079221/ns/today-money/t/why-middle-class-mothers-fathers-are-going-broke/#.VPPw9O7nRJc

What is idiotic is that increased automation was always a better solution than inviting in masses of unskilled immigrants. At least, Japan is doing something in that line.

[sabertooth]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzivCJ9pzU
They took err Jobs!

Where I live for years we always had seasonal migrant workers for the tobacco fields, and horse farms mostly from Mexico. It had little effect on the overall jobs market in the area until about the late 90s when there was a huge influx in illegal Mexicans. The area where I grew up got renamed little Mexico when over the course of 5 years, around 30 thousand immigrants moved to a town of about 300,000. The available farmhand positions where taken, and eventually they began to enter into the construction trades, during the housing booms of early 2000. They had a huge impact in lowering the wages of the average construction worker. Drywallers, brick layers, painters, etc. who once were worth 18 per hour could now barely get 10.

The construction methods during this time reflected the race to the bottom and now its impossible for highly skilled craftsman and artisans who wish to build quality homes with quality materials to compete in the market where a few conglomerate companies with a small army of cheap labor dominate. Many people including my father who had been a builder were put of business during this time.

Then it happened, the great 2008 housing crash and suddenly the demand for cheap immigrant labor dropped off, and the influx has trickled down, and a large number of the Mexican immigrants who came during the first wave are assimilating into the service sectors, of primarily low paying positions. But I will say at least they do work. The primary reason they were allowed to immigrate here in the first place is because Young American workers had become so lazy and entitled that no one wanted to apply themselves to the blue color trades that were once the backbone of the American economy.

This is the reality of today, where millions of Americans with their collage degrees get out into the workforce without having any real world work experience. They are crippled by a great sense of entitlement that prevents them from even considering taking up an honest trade. Instead we have millions who clamor for positions in the cushy compounds of autocratic ineptitude that more and more serve to leech off of the hard working people of the land, while giving less and less back in return. It is many of these same people who look down on the poor and displaced immigrants that are hired out at minimum wage to build and maintain the Ivory tower lifestyle of the middle and upper classes.

[TylerDurden]

That last  is strictly nonsense. The fact is that such unskilled immigration has prevented indigenous types from getting into blue-collar jobs. For example, a British guy I know once wanted to work in various French vineyards in the 90s only to be told that only Polish workers were allowed to work there. I have come across similiar situations where, illegally, ads have been put in UK journals asking for Eastern Europeans only. The reason is simple:- not only do the employers want to pay out only slave-wages, but they are absolutely terrified of non-immigrants doing such jobs anyway because they know that such workers will eventually fight for their rights whereas unskilled immigrants have no power or any legal recourse and so can be as badly treated as possible.

[sabertooth]

That last  is strictly nonsense. The fact is that such unskilled immigration has prevented indigenous types from getting into blue-collar jobs.

I know what I am talking about, I apprenticed under a Mexican electrician who worked for a company by day and out worked and underbid all the local contractors on the side, (under the moon light). The world of contract labor has a bit of the element of the good the bad and the ugly. I have seen it all, from criminally insane immigrants  who should have never been let into the country... to those who are truly good people whom it was an honor to have worked with. 

The main point I was attempting to express, was that because large numbers people in industrial nations are becoming slothen entitled and lazy, while at the same time prefab technology has enabled business owners to swap out skilled labor for unskilled labor, there are the perfect conditions that cause the influx of unskilled laborers into communities of people who no longer wish to do menial labor jobs.

High school aged young adults saving for collage, should be the ones who mow grass and do maid service work, take up the seasonal farm work, etc that our nation has imported millions of immigrant laborers to do... Instead a large portion of the middle class youth are of fucking off and accumulating 100,000 in student loan debt, in order to get a degree they may not even be able to use.

I agree that immigrants are not exactly taking our jobs as much as they are being enticed into doing the jobs that the spoiled youth of the industrial world refuses to do. This trend has a huge impact on the direction in which modern society is going. Traditionally it was the young people who would do menial blue collar work, they would earn their own way, while they studied and learned how to transition into a higher position in life. Now days we have perpetual school children who have never did any real work. These educated idiots demand a high paying job right out of collage. The system (primarily designed by academia and the white collar classes) does its best to accommodate , and so we have an imbalance, where there are way tooooo many white collar jobs being created that serve no significant utility, while much of the value of the blue collar worker is diminished by a combination of white collar larceny, outsourcing, and cheap immigrant labor.  The masses in the industrial nations are taught a bunch of BS in school that does not translate into the practical world, while "unskilled" "uneducated" migrant workers, haven actual work experience that begins in early childhood are highly adaptable and hard working. Many Mexicans come over with very little skill, and after a few years of hard work they can become master of their trade.